The present invention relates to a clamping device for a key duplicating machine for clamping a cylindrical key or a flat key.
Conventional clamping devices for key duplicating machines can only be used to clamp a specific type of key, e.g., a flat key or a cylindrical key.
However, there are several types of keys sold in the market, e.g. flat keys, cylindrical keys, or semi-cylinder keys. Each key has to be duplicated by a key duplicating machine having a specific type of the clamping device. Hence, it is necessary for the lock-smith to have several key duplicating machines with several types of the clamping devices to carry out duplication of different kinds of keys. This will result in an increase of the key duplicating cost.
The present invention aims at eliminating the above disadvantages and provides a clamping device for key duplicating machine for clamping a cylindrical key or a flat key.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the clamping device for key duplicating machine comprises two pairs of fixed jaws and movable jaws arranged on a base, and can be relatively moved to each other along two horizontal parallel upper and lower guide rods; the fixed and movable jaws being provided with several vertical semicylindrical notches of different radii on the confronting sides thereof in order to form several vertical approximate cylindrical clamping holes for clamping cylindrical keys of different diameters when the movable jaws are moved toward the fixed jaws; an upright biasing means provided on the base beneath a horizontal portion of the fixed and movable jaws, including a pivotable location stopper arranged on the fixed jaws and having a horizontal plate portion arranged in a pre-determined level position; an upright cylinder; and a compression spring received in the cylinder for upward biasing a cylindrical key blank or original key to be clamped against the horizontal plate portion.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.